Parents' Guide to The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

When watching a horror movie, viewers often yell at poor souls on the screen to convince them to do anything else besides what will inevitably get them killed at any moment. The basic premise behind The Dark Pictures Anthology and its latest chapter, House of Ashes is: what if the movie victims that are usually resigned to their fates actually listened to what you had to say? While there are gameplay elements involved, this is more of an interactive "Choose Your Own Adventure" style of story, where most of the players' time is spent watching events unfold. House of Ashes improves on the previous entries in the series with things like an improved game camera. There are also longer periods of player interactions, like exploring a character's surroundings for clues or solving puzzles. What's even better is that the added gameplay never feels forced. It's not some random task thrown in just to give players something to do, but rather it feels like some obstacle that fits within the natural narrative of the plot.

Each tale in the Curator's collection from The Dark Pictures Anthology is a bit different from the others, from Man of Medan's ghost ship to the witchcraft tale of Little Hope. House of Ashes continues this trend with its full-on creature feature vibe. There's no subtlety in the scares this time around, which fits perfectly with the game's setting and characters. The multipath storytelling is still the series' greatest strength and biggest weakness at the same time. You never know exactly how a decision made early on might adversely affect events much later. And once you do see the consequences of your choices play out, replaying the adventure to try for a different outcome means long periods of repetition before getting to the point where you can try something new. Shared Story and Movie Night modes both make a return appearance, allowing players to share the drama with friends in either online or couch co-op play. Shared Story is still the best, with players seeing the events unfold from new perspectives, and both modes make for interesting interactions with friends. But as frustrating as it might be to accept your own choices leading to an adverse outcome, it's doubly so when your friends' character decisions or performance in Quick Time Events yank the story even further out of your control. Even so, it still makes for an entertaining twist on the standard movie night.